* The last Dodge driver to win a championship in a NASCAR series was Richard
Petty (No. 43 Dodge -- 1974, 1975).

BOBBY HAMILTON
(No. 4 Square D Dodge Ram)

"Obviously I'm pretty proud of all my people. I've
done this stuff for a long time, and I've driven for a lot of other
people. I know that if you don't have good stuff, or if you
don't have good people to make this happen, it doesn't happen
very easy. I always tell people, 'You can pull a rope easier than
you can push it.' And, trust me, if you don't have good
people, it's like pushing a rope. I have a philosophy that
I've never even mentioned before, but I call it the three
P's. It's People, Product and Performance. And if you
don't have the first or the second, then the last one don't
happen. So, that's sort of what we've built our race team off
of.

"We pretty much knew everything that was going on. The engineers
got together and actually wrote a program that they could just punch a
button if Dennis led a lap, which he did, where I'd have to finish
at. When he made a position or five positions they could punch it and
they'd let me know where everybody was and what we had to do.
Right there at the end they got a bunch of people a lap down and it got
pretty wild on the restarts. So, I just fell to the tail end of the
longest line because I had him (Setzer) five or six ahead of me. I think
I was at 12th at that time. We had a good Dodge. Right there at about the
end of the race my crew chief about fell off his seat. We ran like a
31.70 (sec.) or something at the end of the race, and the leader was
running a 32.20. So, we had a good truck, but we just tried to use our
head and stay out of trouble.

"These Dodges, they make a ton of horsepower, and the Chevrolets
get like four or five more laps to a tank of fuel than we did. So, we
made up our mind when we got like 15 or 20 laps in that we would stop and
put gas in it. So, that put us in the back. Then we just started having
to take care of stuff. We knew that's what was going to happen.

"When Kasey got to me to lap me, I was concerned because I had
right-front going down. We just didn't want to advertise it,
because a lot of people would scan it or whatever and try to take
advantage of it. Then Kasey, being a team truck, or obviously a Dodge
truck, he backed off a little bit. It wouldn't have made any
difference because he had to come in for gas in the next five laps and
the other truck was 15 seconds behind me. But, the caution probably
helped us from not having a tire go all the way down. It was only two
pounds low, but it had a place cut where I'd hit something on the
racetrack.

"I'm real light when it comes to a driver. That's what
I do to have my fun. I know I sound like a broken record, but it's
the truth. If I had to go talk to a sponsor and tell him I really cared
about winning championships then I'd be lying. It's all
about the people and Dodge. Dodge hasn't won a championship since
(1975). To keep all of this stuff going, they've been back in this
sport for three or four years now. It was huge to win their first
championship, for somebody to win it, and I just wanted to be the guy to
go out and win their first championship.

On being conservative, and dropping down to the bottom of the
track...

"I would just pull over. It's legal to pass to the right-hand
side, so I didn't want to take a chance to mess up anybody behind
me. I didn't want to go to turn one right off the gas, so I'd
just pull over and let them pass me on the right side, where it
wouldn't get them in any kind of trick, rule-wise or anything. I
was just trying to be respectful and safe at the same time. It's
easy to get hit in the back on restarts. So, I was just trying to keep
from having that happen too.

"The emotion is a happy emotion. Last week was a disappointing
emotion. I ran over my kid and wrecked him. Even though it was him
missing a gear or whatever, you still don't want that to happen. I
had somebody ask me the other day, 'Why did you feel this
way?' you know, they were trying pick it apart. And I said,
'He's my kid. You'd feel the same way. Trust
me.' It's a different emotion. It just hasn't sunk in
for me. I mean, I know that I won the championship, and I knew going in
that I was racing for the championship, but I've wanted it so bad
so long for other people besides myself. You know something? When
I'm about half drunk tomorrow night after the banquet it'll
probably sink in, and I'll be too drunk to cry about it. I'll
be just having a good time.

"Probably half of them (race championships) I've won as an
owner. That's obviously a smaller series or whatever, but it really
is the same thing. I think the biggest gratification that I had out of
tonight was walking out on that stage and talking a few minutes with Mike
Helton and him presenting it to me. I've always been a huge fan,
and I've had my problems -- everybody in racing has had their
problems with the way NASCAR does things at times -- but I've
always been a big fan of Bill (France) Jr. Just some things he said to
me back when I drove with the McClures or even the Pettys. He'd
walk up and give you a pep talk, you know?. It's just a vision that
the family has had. And even though we get irritated with it sometimes,
like Kenny Schraeder has said, it's better than having a real job.
Trust me. I was standing on the stage and I had just won a NASCAR
championship, and I had my son, my grandchild, all of my guys. It's
almost like you write a script for it for a movie, and all of a sudden it
lands that way. So, that's a soft spot with it. But again, the
championship deal is just icing on the cake for somebody else.

About being a driver and team owner in this series...

"It's as difficult as you think it is, I guess. I've
had some tough times. We hadn't won all the races, so it's
not easy. They told me up on stage that I was the first guy since Alan
Kulwicki to do it. And I think he and I are the maybe are the only ones
in the modern era to do it. That's weird how that had come full
circle because Paul Andrews was hanging around in the pits, and he was
the crew chief with Alan. So, you surround yourself with good people. I
know this isn't a good example, but Hendrick Motorsports has got a
lot of great people that makes that race team what it is. And Bobby
Hamilton Racing has a great support system with the people it has. My
deal is structured very, very simple. I walk in there on Mondays. I hang
around in the shop. I help design the chassis. That's what I do for
fun. On Tuesdays I sign the bills and talk about what we've got to
do for testing and stuff. On Wednesdays they leave me alone -- they
do their job. And on Thursdays we're going to the racetrack.
That's the way it's been all year long. And basically all I
did was took the middle people out so nobody could say, 'Well,
so-and-so told me this, or they didn't tell me this.' Then
they have to come to me about everything. I've got 40 people. It
isn't that hard to juggle 40 people a week. It just isn't
that hard when you have people that do your travel, and crew chiefs that
handle their people well."

"Believe it or not I don't even have a sponsor for next year.
But I did win the championship, so I do have a resume to carry to
somebody now. I just thought of that. That's pretty cool about
winning a championship. We're really close on some things for the
No. 4 truck. The No. 18 truck is done. It's got probably the best
sponsor it's had since I've been in business. It's a
factory-backed team too. Chase Montgomery is going to drive it. And
we're putting together a deal with Ray on the No. 8 truck for some
other people to run it some. We're trying to get Chad located in
the No. 59 truck. I don't know if that's going to work out or
not. We're still talking to Jim Harris about that. I told Chad that
he could talk to other people. He's talked to other teams at this
time. But as far as sponsorships at Bobby Hamilton Racing, we're
going to be okay. I'm pretty sure.

On Dodge's commitment to the NCTS

"Dieter Zetsche is in Germany, and he runs this whole thing.
They've been wanting a championship. Dodge has been in this thing
as long as Chevrolet has or Ford. There's been eight championships
won until now, and none of them had been Dodges. This is a performance
business and they put a lot of emphasis on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series because they feel like they sell a lot of vehicles by doing that.
So, in return, they deserve a championship. You can't give them a
championship, you have to go out and earn it. So, saying that they
deserve one, that's not like you're just going to give them
one. It's just took them this long for all of the teams to finally
be spokes in a single wheel instead of being spokes in four different
wheels. This is the first year that all of the Dodge teams have really
worked together and shared information like you should do it.

On Kahne jumping in the No.2 for two straight wins...

"I think it's great. I think there's a truck being
designed for some Cup drivers to come drive it. I like it as an owner
because I think when we have Cup drivers, the ticket sales go up a little
bit and it draws a little more interest to the series. So, I like it. It
doesn't bother me none. When you have good stuff you can outrun
Kasey. We were going to beat Kasey last week, and he ended up winning the
race because I ran over Bobby Jr., or whatever. It makes no difference
to me. When I ran Busch, when the Cup guys come... I loved it when
Dale Earnhardt, Sr., came and run Busch Series because if you ran with
Dale Sr., you draw a lot of attention.